RALSTON, Mark F. 1950-1978

RALSTON, FRIEDL, TOWNSEND

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 11/5/2013 at 20:51:31

[Waterloo Courier, Friday, December 22, 1978]

Services for Mark F. Ralston, 28, of Uvalde, Texas, and formerly of 714 Hammond Ave:, will be noon Saturday at St. Edward's Catholic Church with burial in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

Friends may call at the Oppold Funeral Home from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Memorials may be given in his name to Columbus High School.

Mr. Ralston died Thursday morning in a mid-air plane crash between Uvalde and Del Rio. Texas.

He was born July 10, 1950, in Waterloo, son of Milo and Rosemary Friedl Ralston. He was employed as a commercial pilot for Stopher Mechanical Company for the past year. He attended the University of Iowa and the University of Texas in Arlington.

Surviving are his parents; two brothers, James of 933 W. Third St. and Michael at home; two sisters. Marianne, at home, and Mrs. James Townsend of Iowa City; and paternal grandmother, Mrs. E. A. Ralston of 812 Marsh St.

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[Odessa American December 22, 1978]

2 killed in plane crash

SPOFFORD, Texas (AP) - Two men were killed in the crash of a small plane Thursday in a field near Texas 131, a few miles from this Southwest Texas town, following a collision with another plane. The second plane made an emergency landing on the highway and both its occupants escaped injury. The two planes had been flying side by side in a screwworm eradication program being undertaken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The victims were identified as the pilot, Mark Ralston, 28, of Dallas, and Victor Rodriguez, 24, a USDA employee from Uvalde.